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Yorkshire will not be rushing when it comes to deciding on their overseas plans for the forthcoming county season – but Australian legend Ricky Ponting could be in the reckoning.

The most likely signing at present is South Africa batsman David Miller for Twenty20, with both parties keen on a deal following the left-hander’s successful spell with the county at home and abroad last summer.

But former Australian captain Ponting is a batsman not ruled out.

Said first-team coach Jason Gillespie: “Don’t worry, his name came up after he made the decision to retire (from all international cricket).”

It is no secret Yorkshire would also welcome back Mitchell Starc with open arms if he was made available for any period of time by Cricket Australia, but Gillespie knows that is unlikely.

One name who Gillespie has distanced the county from is Australian bowler Shaun Tait, a Twenty20 specialist and a big mate of his. A report earlier this week suggested Yorkshire were front-runners for his signature.

“We’ll probably have some conversations about the overseas path in the next month or so,” said Gillespie. “But we’re not actually looking that far ahead.

“I can honestly say I haven’t spoken to Shaun about coming here. I’m big mates with him and had him out at the MidWest Rhinos in Zimbabwe, but I haven’t had a conversation with him about coming to play for Yorkshire. That hasn’t come up.

“We’re hopeful Dave will be back because he had such a massive impact for us on and off the field last season.

“We’d also love to have a player of Mitchell Starc’s calibre. We haven’t really thought about that, and the reason is he’s playing all three forms of the game for Australia. We don’t expect him to be available. We’d certainly look at it if he was.

“We’ve recruited really well. I believe along with Andrew Hodd from Sussex, we have two fantastic lads and fantastic bowlers in Liam Plunkett and Jack Brooks.

“When you look at it like that, do we really need to go down the overseas bowler route?”

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